We were pleasantly surprised with Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s first foray into the world of videogames. Brimming with fan service and references spanning 17 years of cartoon capers, South Park: The Stick of Truth skewered traditional fantasy tropes within a compelling, concise package. Now we’re exceedingly excited for the sequel: South Park: The Fractured But Whole. There’s a joke in there somewhere, we’re sure of it.
Not convinced by South Park: The Fractured But Whole? Take a look at our full review.
In South Park: The Fractured But Whole, it’s superheroes and their publishers DC and Marvel that are being put to the satirical sword. The kids of South Park have clearly got bored with their Stick of Truth game, and you along with it. Where once you rose through the ranks from ‘The New Kid’ to the enviably-monikered ‘Sir Douchebag’ – we wish we were even that popular at school – your ‘cool’ status has diminished in the eyes of Cartman and co.
If you’ve not been keeping up with all the latest news from these miscreant Coloradans, here’s everything we know about South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole release date
When is the South Park: The Fractured But Whole release date? You only have to wait until October 17 this year to start flatulating on unsuspecting passers-by one again, and it’ll cost $59.99/£54.99.
You have no idea how satisfying it is to be able to give you a firm release date for South Park: The Fractured But Whole. It’s been a rocky ride trying to keep up with it. Originally, we were supposed to don our underwear on the outside of our clothes in December 2016, but the game was pushed back. At least we know when to expect it now even if it’s a whole ten months later.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole gameplay
Things have evolved in the South Park: The Fractured But Whole gameplay department since the first game, as the above video shows. The footage is from E3 2017 and shows you and Scott Malkinson (aka Captain Diabetes) sauntering through the Peppermint Hippo strip club in search of a stripper with a tattoo-adorned penis. Yes, really.
The video also reveals the return of minigames. Where once we made do with the small matter of abortions on male patients – censored in the UK and Europe – in South Park: The Fractured But Whole you perform a methane lap dance on some drunk VIPs. Again, really.
These debauched drunks are somehow left unsatisfied with their smelly service and are searching for a fight. It’s at this point that South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s “all-new dynamic combat system” is shown. Gone is the JRPG-like turn-based battling system of The Stick of Truth. In South Park: The Fractured But Whole we have a tactical grid-based battle system similar to XCOM or Fire Emblem, allowing for deeper and more flexible combinations of powers and abilities.
Where you previously stood in the same position for the duration of a battle, in South Park: The Fractured But Whole there’s an added layer of strategy as you move into different positions as part of your turn. You can use multiple members of your team to surround enemies or place yourself in optimum locations on the grid depending on whether you’re using ranged or close combat attacks.
We also see the return of elemental attacks. Following the ice attack ‘Snowball Flurry’, you inflict the ‘Chilled’ status effect on your unfortunate assailant, forcing them to skip a turn.This, as well as other debuffs such as ‘Grossed Out’ and ‘Charmed’, can be used in The Fractured But Whole.
Indicated by the progress bar at the top of the HUD, you can charge an ultimate attack by dealing damage and successfully completing a QTE after your enemy has attacked. In total you have four powers to choose from, and you can mix-and-match between classes; you choose one ultimate and three other abilities from the Powers app on your smartphone/menu.
Before the fight we see the character selection screen. In The Stick of Truth you could swap your one ally with others during a fight, but this is now something you choose at the outset. In the video we can see four possible allies at your disposal for each fight.
We also see the introduction of destructible cover. Party members will take cover behind elements of the environment, but we see in the E3 2017 gameplay that powers such as Captain Diabetes’ ‘Insulin Shock’ destroys a small table. The environment is also reactive: we know that, if you initiate the right attack in the right place, you can slam Randy into the side of his car.
We also know that knockback combos make a return; if you attack an enemy with an enemy behind them on the grid, that enemy will also take damage. You’ll also need to make use of the grid to move yourself and your allies out of the firing line – ‘telegraphed attacks’ are indicated with striped red squares on the grid. You can also use summons in South Park: The Fractured But Whole, the first of which is Moses, who you can use to heal allies. They are consumable but, once you discover one, you can craft new ones to your heart’s content.
Farts are funny. South Park has taught us this much by now. But they’ve never been as useful as they are in South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Now, the erstwhile Sir Douchebag can ‘bottom burp’ with such unearthly power that you can mess with the entire space-time continuum. In other words, you can manipulate the battle’s turn order to your advantage.
You can also bump yourself to the top of a turn order with ‘combat advantage’ if you get the first hit on your enemy outside of the fight. Additionally, you can debuff your target by throwing a fart in their face before a fight, which will kindly confer on them the gross out debuff when the battle commences. If you want to avoid combat you can throw a fart in the oncoming enemy’s direction to stun them while you run away like the stoic superhero you are.
Outside of combat there are still various ways to interact with the world of South Park: The Fractured But Whole to find hidden loot and collectibles. For instance, you can collect pieces of yaoi art rather than Chinpokomon from the Stick of Truth. WFor example, with help from The Human Kite (Kyle), you can use your farts to rhythmically propel yourself to previously inaccessible places.
Also helping you interact with the environment is your detective mode – borrowed from the Batman Arkham series – with which to find hidden items, see if NPCs will follow you, and discover the strength of your enemies before launching into battle. Bowel excretion has had a much-needed revamp, too. Each bog trip becomes a minigame with its own QTE challenge and difficulty rating.
We also know that looting and crafting have had a general revamp. In the video below, we see both systems in action as The New Kid and Captain Diabetes need to craft a ‘special’ gin and tonic to get rid of the barman, with each successful creation boosting your crafter rank.
The Stick of Truth released in 2014, almost a lifetime ago in tech time. This means that its social media menus need an update. Now we’re going to need a fully-fledged smartphone if we’re going to function in 2017. Anyone with a smartphone will instantly recognise the layout of these menus as they work just like apps on a familiar grid-like design.
One app we know about so far is ‘Coonstagram’, a social network that allows you to take selfies with certain characters. You need to do this to recruit new members, but some will only take a picture with you if you have sufficient followers – which is just old people and postal workers to start with. Once you’ve accrued a healthy number of online pals, messages and selfies appear in a fun feed, with notifications coming through in-game this time.
You have more allies than the maximum of four you can have in a fight, so you need to use the Allies app to swap them out. Each character, along with their bio, stats, class, and grid moves are listed here, so you can balance your party and optimise it for the perilous encounters ahead.
Everything looks much cleaner in theour new Inventory, with your current funds visible as well as tabs for consumables, mission items, and components. In Settings/Gallery you can customise the settings of your phone just as you would your own, with custom wallpapers, for example. Your Character Sheet tracks your progress and records any titles you’ve earned – The Coon will leave some rewards in your bedroom toy box with each title you get. Artifacts are craftable and can boost your stats and team combat strength – more slots are unlocked as your hero rank increases.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole story
In the first game, as The New Kid, you and your South Park chums are playing a fantasy game in which Humans and Elves clash in their claim over the titular Stick of Truth. In South Park: The Fractured But Whole, the gang have got bored since all the drama has died down. And so, the very next day, a new game is to be played, this time themed around superheroes. It’s this new game that triggers the events of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, but there’s rancour in the ranks.
In a thinly-veiled swipe against publishing titans Marvel and DC, Cartman and friends form their own superhero studio with which to defend South Park. But, which of the gang will get their own standalone film? Which two superheroes, set up with their origin films, naturally, will team up to form a highly-profitable dynamic duo? It’s these franchise strategy questions that lead to a superhero schism, hence the ‘Whole’ is ‘Fractured’ into the rivalling Coon and Friends and Freedom Pals. Nobody wants to end up with the Netflix series, after all. We’re looking at you, Iron Fist.
Civil war ensues and, once again, The New Kid is at its centre. As you collected friends in The Stick of Truth, you’ll need to do the same with Coonstagram if you want your franchise to survive. We predict that this will lead to a similar structure to The Stick of Truth, then featuring a scrap between the Humans and the Elves.Butters’ will also feature as South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s main antagonist. Beware of the lava (red lego bricks) this dastardly villain has spread throughout South Park – you won’t be able to access areas blocked by it.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s story is, like the previous outing, created, written, voiced, and directed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. If The Stick of Truth felt as close to the TV show as to be almost another series, South Park: The Fractured But Whole should prove to be just as faithful, if even more outrageous.
The setting remains the same, but we don’t yet know if we’ll be making any journeys into Canada as we did in The Stick of Truth. There are changes to the world of South Park, certainly, but we’ll find ourselves in a world with a fresh coat of paint, rather than something entirely new.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole classes
In South Park: The Fractured But Whole, you’ll need to choose a class to start your superheroic shenanigans, but you only have a choice of three as a newbie from a total of 12: Brutalist, Blaster, and Speedster. Then, at a certain point in the story, you get to mix and match skills across classes.
In The Stick of Truth, your character’s appearance was hardly finalised after you were done with the character creation screen: as you progressed through the game you had plenty of opportunities to equip cosmetic items you picked up. South Park: The Fractured But Whole looks no different while hair, makeup, facial hair, eyewear, and clothes customisation options are retained. You have a bevy of colour options for each aspect of your attire, including your heroic gloves.
When we say there are colour options for everything, we weren’t joking. In South Park: The Fractured But Whole your race is directly linked to the game’s difficulty outside of combat. When you select your skin colour, Cartman says: “don’t worry this doesn’t affect combat, just every other aspect of your whole life.” Nope, nothing wrong here. Move along.
In a Game Informer interview with the game’s senior producer, Jason Schroeder, we find out the point of multi-classing is to make your character more flexible and customisable: “As your understanding of the tactics becomes more sophisticated, the classes give you a range of tactical choices you could be making.” Such malleability will be important when you’re looking to complement the strengths and weaknesses of your favoured party members.
On top of this, you’ll also have a character sheet to fill out. This works as a progress tracker in which you can monitor the development of your stats: Spunk (magical and special abilities), Brawn (physical strength), Speed (turn regularity and how far you can move on the grid), Dexterity (aiming and accuracy), and Fortitude (defense).
Included in your Character Sheet is your race, religion, gender, arch enemy, and your always-anally-located power source. You will also need to choose your kryptonite, or the enemy faction you’re weak against. Some of these you will choose over the course of playing South Park: The Fractured But Whole, but others will be determined by your playstyle.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole characters
There are a wide selection of South Park: The Fractured But Whole characters to do battle alongside: you can recruit up to 13 to your cause. On the game’s section of the Ubisoft website you switch between each character’s superhero and everyday get-ups. Here are the ten characters we know about so far:
The New Kid
Having worked so hard to make your name and be ‘knighted’ Sir Douchebag in the fantasy realm, you’re nothing when it comes to the superhero parallel world of South Park: The Fractured But Whole. We do know that, amongst all the other names The Coon will kindly bestow on you, you will be known by the public as The Farting Vigilante.
The Coon (Cartman)
Cartman reprises his role as the loud-mouthed leader. He’s the founder of the original South Park superhero franchise ‘Coon and Friends’ and he’ll stop at nothing before his franchise is the greatest of all time. Coon uses his sharp metal claws to swipe at his enemies and prowl the rooftops of South Park.
Mysterion (Kenny)
Mysterion can never die. So, who’s the most appropriate South Park character to assume that ability? The famously durable Kenny McCormick, of course.
Human Kite (Kyle)
As the Human Kite, Kyle can fly, obviously, and has the ability to project energy blasts.
Toolshed (Stan)
Having recently raided his Dad’s shed, Stan is armed with a fearsome arsenal of power tools, which he can manipulate with his mind.
Professor Chaos (Butters)
Since ‘Butters’ doesn’t exactly strike fear into caped crusaders of any franchise, Professor Chaos was the only title that would do. Cast out by society, Professor Chaos seeks the destruction of the world, and the revenues of Coon and Friends.
Iron Maiden (Timmy)
Timmy’s super power is indestructibility, probably due to his terrifying armour: a sarcophagus of spikes based on the medieval torture device, the Iron Maiden.
TupperWare (Token)
As unfortunate back stories go, this one takes the plastic-encased biscuit: TupperWare was run over and put back together out of tupperware. Ouch.
The Mosquito (Clyde)
There aren’t many details out there on Clyde’s blood-sucking superhero, but he is an original member of Coon and Friends.
Bradley Biggle
Not much on Bradley either, but we do know that he wields all the powers of sugary cereal in South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Presumably, though, he runs out of energy after the inevitable sugar rush.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole Collector’s Edition
As you’d expect from Ubisoft, South Park: The Fractured But Whole comes in various editions. That’s the Standard, Deluxe, Gold, Steelbook Gold editions and, of course, the South Park: The Fractured But Whole Collector’s Edition.
The Standard edition will net you the base game with The Stick of Truth gratis. The Deluxe edition will include everything in the Standard edition but will have a costume and perks, as well as a set of three postcards. The Gold edition doesn’t have the costume, perks, and three postcards, but it does have the season pass. The Gold edition is digital-only, while the Steelbook Gold edition is a US-only physical variant coming with everything you’ll find in the Gold edition, but you’ll get a nice steelbook, too.
In the Gold, Steelbook Gold, and Collector’s Editions, you’ll also get “Towelie: Your Gaming Bud.” In other words, if you stump up the extra cash, you’ll get extra-absorbent advice at key locations throughout South Park: The Fractured But Whole.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole Collector’s Edition will include the base game, three postcards, a collector’s box, perks, and a Towelie costume. You’ll also get a six-inch Coon figurine in the Collector’s Edition, something you can’t pick up anywhere else.
This and all the other figurines associated with South Park: The Fractured But Whole are detailed in the video below.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole pre-order
If this second South Park game has piqued your interest but you haven’t got stuck into the first one yet, we have good news for you. With your South Park: The Fractured But Whole preorder you get The Stick of Truth for free. You can start downloading the Coloradan fantasy romp as soon as you place your South Park: The Fractured But Whole preorder.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole season pass DLC
Three separate bits of DLC have been revealed for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, with two being story DLC. The most interesting is ‘From Dusk till Casa Bonita’, which sees The Coon and Mysterion defeating a demonic presence in the new area of Casa Bonita. The other, ‘Bring the Crunch’, brings with it a new story and superhero class. Both are coming in 2018.
The other piece of South Park: The Fractured But Whole DLC is a combat challenge called ‘Danger Deck’, coming in December 2017. Here, you will be facing Doctor Timothy’s Danger Deck – presenting the opportunity to unlock unique costumes and artifacts.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole system requirements
What areSouth Park: The Fractured But Whole system requirements? They shouldn’t stress your GPU too much, if the video below from Ubisoft is to be believed. Apparently, the PC version of the game is getting the love it deserves, as it can run on a wide range of PCs.
Here are the South Park: The Fractured But Whole system requirements:
Minimum:
- CPU: Intel i5 2400, AMD FX 4320 or equivalent
- GPU: GTX 560Ti, AMD Radeon HD 7850
- Memory: 6GB
- Disk Space: 30GB
Recommended:
- CPU: Intel i5-4690K, AMD FX-8350
- GPU: GTX 670, AMD Radeon R9 280X
- Memory: 8GB
- Disk Space: 30GB
You can also check whether your PC can run South Park: The Fractured But Whole with our friends at Can You Run It.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole trailer
If you’re overcome with excitement for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, there are plenty of trailers and gameplay videos to sate your appetite before it comes out:
The new South Park game is here! Above is the game’s official launch trailer.
We were not the only ones that really liked South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Above you will find the game’s Accolades Trailer.
If you sat through The Stick of Truth and thought, ‘these farts just really aren’t up to scratch, I could do much better!’, then this smelly little initiative is for you. In South Park: The Fractured But Whole, fans – so to speak – can have their farts immortalised until the end of time in the game. Yes, even more so than the one you did after Christmas dinner in ’06.
Hooray! South Park: The Fractured But Whole has gone gold, so let’s celebrate with the Game is Gold trailer. It features more racially-driven humour, and we’re not even sure if wqe should be offended at this point.
You start your adventure with Cartman’s Coon and Friends superhero franchise, but, in the trailer above, we see Mysterion asking the The New Kid to join the Freedom Pals.
This is the South Park: The Fractured But Whole E3 2017 trailer. In it, we see the tension between the rival superhero franchises – Coon and Friends vs Freedom Pals.
Every superhero needs a traumatic backstory that drives them. In this South Park: The Fractured But Whole trailer, your own devastating backstory is revealed.
Back at Gamescom 2016, Ubisoft showed off this South Park: The Fractured But Whole trailer. It’s pre-alpha but it does show the tutorial as you get used to the new combat mechanics.
In this video diary with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, we get an insight into the design process and how combat has changed since the previous game. Also interesting is how story planning is different from creating South Park: The Fractured But Whole to a regular episode of the TV show.
And that’s everything we know about South Park: The Fractured But Whole. If we’ve missed anything, or you just want to have a natter about all things South Park, let us know in the comments.